After Bheja Fry, Bhatukali is the only film that I have made without any outside pressure - Sagar Ballary

Bheja Fry made director Sagar Bellary a bankable name in Bollywood. The film which was made on a shoe-string budget did extremely well at the box-office and even managed to impress the most hard-to-please critics. After having made his mark in the world of Hindi cinema, Sagar has now forayed into the Marathi film industry, albeit as a producer. Bhatukali, the first movie that he has co-produced is gearing up to release on 13th June. Directed by Sagar's protégé, Rohit Joshi, the movie stars well-known Marathi actors namely Ajinkya Deo, Shilpa Tulaskar, Smita Talvalkar, Tanvie Kishore, Sunil Barve, Shashank Shende & Kiran Karmarkar. We caught up with the director and now producer, Sagar Bellary for an exclusive chat.

How did the association with Rohit happen?

Filmmaker Vikas Desai who made Gehrayee introduced me to Rohit when I came to Mumbai. Rohit joined me when we were in post production of Kaccha Limbu and he was my ninth AD whom I didn't have time to speak with. He was kept under training with my first AD Cyrus. Slowly he became my most trustworthy person and was put completely in charge of Bheja Fry 2 which was my first international shoot. We went abroad and shot overseas and Rohit handled it very well. He is silent and soft spoken and I used to be tell him to be more aggressive, By making Bhatukali, he has made me more soft spoken.

What was your reaction after reading the script?

First, I was surprised that Rohit had discreetly written the script. No one knew that he was writing something. Then when he narrated the whole story and then told me that the title of the film is Bhatukali, I was impressed. The title and story of the film merged so well that I said, 'Wow'. Unanimously my whole team of Bheja Fry was impressed with Rohit too.

How did you arrive at this decision to co-produce it?

I had just done Hum Tum Shabana which hadn't done well. We were in doldrums wondering what was happening. And we were still figuring out this whole world of Hindi cinema where you are at the hostage and mercy of producers and financiers whims. You are not able to do what you want to do. In that period of turmoil, Rohit came up with this script and we just wanted to do it. He thought that I would produce it but he was not sure from where we would produce it. We ourselves were not sure about our finances. Then every time I met a financier, he would say let’s make Bheja Fry in one or two crore. I used to tell them 'Don’t make me to do some substandard film for such money’. Times have changed. That was 2007. This is 2014. So let’s make a good film in which ever language that we can.' I thought that this good script deserved to be made into a film. So I approached another friend of mine and told him about it. I told him, 'Let’s make it…We will not spend too much money. By then Rohit had also gained the love and respect and things fell in place.

Why did you make the film in Marathi and will it be remade in Hindi too?

Well, Rohit is comfortable writing in Marathi and so we decided to make it in Marathi. It's too early to say if it can be remade in Marathi.

Being a director yourself, how did you disassociate yourself from interfering with Rohit's directorial inputs?

That was my abstinence. When you are on the sets, as a producer you don’t worry about the creative aspect of the film, you rather worry about the comfort and pleasure of your actors and see to it that the water, toilet and vanity vans are clean and everybody reaches on time and gets fed (laughs).

What difference do you find in producing a movie in Marathi as compared to Bollywood?

In Marathi film industry, the exposure of your money is much less than what happens in a Hindi film. Here you release in a single state and not in the entire country. So you can focus well on a single state rather than the entire country. It is not expensive. Other than that there is no difference. The beauty of Marathi cinema is that since it is in Mumbai where Hindi cinema has flourished, all the equipments available for Hindi cinema are available for Marathi industry as well.

Anything on the Hindi front?

I have been working on a film called How Many Times Can You Fall in Love? It is a Hinglish movie and will be produced by my own banner, Flower Film Family.

Now that you have floated you own banner, will you accept work from outside your banner?

No. I will be making films for our own banner and no one else. I have suffered a lot of problems while making films for others because I couldn't have my say. Bheja Fry was the only film I made without any pressure from any outside parties. And after that it has taken me seven years to make this one in Marathi.